


Nothing Haunts Us Like the Things We Don't Say

by Poppies_From_Under_the_Snow



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Blood, Depression, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Leo Needs a Hug, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 04:26:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14845692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poppies_From_Under_the_Snow/pseuds/Poppies_From_Under_the_Snow
Summary: Leo and Calypso return to Camp Half-Blood in an... untidy fashion. Leo is convinced that he's not good enough. Everyone else has to convince him that he is before something results from Leo's negative attitude.





	Nothing Haunts Us Like the Things We Don't Say

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: This chapter does include descriptions of a copious amount of blood. It's not gore, but there is a lot of description of blood. This description is to intensify the feelings of the characters.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leo returns to the camp badly injured, both physically and mentally. Also, copying and pasting my writing took out a little bit of the formatting.

The shifting shade of the cottonwood tree was cool, and seemed to have a peaceful air, contrasting the sharp heat of the place where the sun touched the earth. Jason and Piper sat as close as they could without being too uncomfortably hot, Jason’s right thigh was pressed against Piper’s left one. Their fingers were intertwined. They were not speaking, but they were close enough to reach the understanding that this moment didn’t need words.  
Camp Half-Blood was peaceful, and Jason enjoyed visiting it. Camp Jupiter had a totally different feeling, (though it was one that Jason had become accustomed to) bustling and busy. Camp Jupiter felt like a city. Camp Half-Blood felt like a summer camp. Jason wondered if that was supposed to be the point.  
Percy and Annabeth were visiting from the city. They were both going to university, and Jason knew that Chiron was proud of them. But, sometimes, Jason wondered if Chiron was afraid of their absence. Percy and Annabeth had done a really good job of protecting the camp while they grew up, and there was quite a bit of uncertainty when they first left.  
“You’re sunburned,” Piper’s voice interrupted his thoughts (though not in a way that Jason minded). She touched Jason’s nose with her pointer finger. “I told you to wear sunscreen. You’re too pale to be out here without it.”  
“You’re not my boss.” Piper smirked.  
“And you’re not four years old. Although, sometimes, I wonder…” Jason flicked the back of her hand. Piper settled her head against Jason’s shoulder, and Jason watched the flickering patches of sunlight shift over her caramel skin. He could see the veins in her eyelids, which he somehow still found beautiful. Oh, gods… he was a creep.  
Jason closed his eyes, and rested his head against Piper’s. Unfortunately, this moment of peace was not long lived. Jason’s total consciousness was jarred back into him when there was an explosion on the lake. People were suddenly screaming, and running away. A plume of smoke, or debris was floating up from the lake in a giant cloud. Jason jumped to his feet, and squinted his eyes. He could see Percy and Annabeth run up to the waterline on the beach, pointing, and shouting, and beckoning. Annabeth was pushing Percy towards the water, and Percy dove in. “Jason!” Piper jabbed Jason in the arm with her pointer finger, “Come on!” She grabbed his arm, and they sprinted towards the beach. Jason tried to focus his eyes on Percy’s figure, emerging from the water. Someone was in his arms. Someone was behind him. They were running towards the camp. At least, Jason thought so.It was difficult to tell with the shifting and bobbing of their run.  
They got to the waterline, and there were still crowds of people standing there. The sun beat down on their necks, and Jason wondered what happened. He asked a few other campers, but all of them seemed to be just as lost as he was. Piper turned from speaking with a younger, female camper, hopeless frustration flickering over her gaze. “What?” asked Jason.  
“Something about a boy and girl with and exploded donkey?”  
Jason shook his head, “What?” Piper’s facial expression that had seemed to continuously hold its confusion suddenly turned stark white. Her shiny kaleidoscope eyes dulled. She pointed at the ground. Jason seemed to feel his heart fall at Piper’s expression. He felt like he already knew what was on the ground.  
But, Jason turned to look anyway. Blood was streaked and splattered across the sand in a messy line. It was more than enough to make Jason’s stomach lurch. That amount of blood was something that he’d never, ever seen outside of somebody.  
Piper looked up at him, her eyes were somehow flat but still wide with shock. “I want to know what’s going on, Jason.”  
“I mean… we could go to the infirmary. I’m sure that there are a lot of people crowding it right now, and I’m certain that the Apollo kids wouldn’t really be happy to see us.” But, Jason had a sinking feeling in his stomach. It was almost a sense of sick intrigue. He felt like he knew what was going on, or at least, that he should know. “Let’s just go.”  
Piper grabbed his hand, and they jogged along the trail of blood. Jason couldn’t stop thinking about it. He could see it, still crimson, and shiny, and fresh. It seemed like a scene from a horror movie. Jason could see it in his mind- a blonde actor stepping through a rickety door frame, and screaming when she saw the trail of blood. But… this wasn’t a movie. This was real, but Jason couldn’t seem to convince himself that it was.  
They got to the infirmary, where Nico and a couple of Apollo cabin kids were doing their best to usher nosey people away. Annabeth was kneeling on the ground outside, patting the back of a caramel-haired girl, who was throwing up. Jason noticed that she wore a white dress that casted purple shadows, and was splattered with blood from her left shoulder down. “Annabeth!” Piper called, “Annabeth!”  
Annabeth looked up at them, and Jason wanted to pass out. He suddenly knew what was going on. Annabeth’s grey eyes were flat with the same look of shock that had graced Piper’s face at the lake. She looked back down at the girl when she gagged again. “What’s going on?” Jason felt sick, like he already knew what was going on. He didn’t need to ask, really. He shouldn’t have. He could just feel it. Annabeth shook her head, and pressed her finger to her lips.  
Piper’s warm hand on his arm, guiding him to sit on the ground helped him regain his full consciousness instead of the adrenaline-fueled, dwindling half-consciousness that he was operating on.  
It seemed like a long time until Percy stepped out of the infirmary. Jason’s stomach flipped when he saw him, and he threw up. Percy’s entire right side was drenched in… blood. His t-shirt was soaked. His neck and ear were covered. He knelt next to Jason and Piper, but Jason already knew what was going on. He didn’t want Percy to stop at them. He didn’t want to be the family that Percy had to stop at to let them know that their kin was dead. “It’s Leo, guys. He crashed into the lake and got cut from here…” Percy pressed a pointer finger under his left ear, “... to here.” He traced his finger and under his jaw line to just underneath the center of his chin. Percy let out a shaky breath, and Jason felt like he was looking into his eyes. “I… I think that he’s going to die.”

Jason and Piper couldn’t sleep that night. They both laid awake on Jason’s bed in the Zeus Cabin, where Chiron had agreed on letting them reside together, since they were in shock.  
The image of Leo’s blood so recklessly splattered along the ground and soaking through Percy’s t-shirt was haunting Jason. He was mad at himself for not seeing the reality of the situation because the amount of blood was almost comical in a horrifying way. He still felt like it wasn’t even real. He felt like it was just some horrible dream that he was looking back on, or something that had happened long ago.  
Chiron had them talk to Calypso, thinking that maybe the three of them could bond over their mutual horror. Jason guessed that he shouldn’t blame Chiron, though. Jason knew that demigods died all the time, but for some reason this was different. It wasn’t usually so close to home. Leo had been almost there.  
When Will told Jason and Piper that they could see Leo, he felt nothing. He didn’t want to see him, drained of any sign of life.  
And the worst part was, Jason felt like he shouldn’t have been upset. They had already lost Leo once. Why was this grief so new to him? Why did he feel so surprised? When he told this to Percy, it looked like Percy wanted to hit him. “Maybe it’s because you guys are friends?”  
Will led them into the infirmary, pushing open the door so they could walk through. Leo was on a bed with his eyes closed. Morbidly enough, he’d been changed out of his presumably blood-stained t-shirt, but it seemed that they couldn’t stop him from bleeding all over his fresh one. “We gave him as much Ambrosia as we could,” said Will, leaning against the wall at the head of the bed. “It helped a little, but his wound was pretty bad. I gave him stitches, and we bandaged it up.” Will shrugged, “That’s all we can do, until we get permission for a blood transfusion, and find a donor…” Will trailed off, and looked down at Leo, “AB+... I should write that down before I forget it.”  
Eventually, they did get permission for a transfusion. Jason agreed to be the doner almost happily, since he was a universal donor. He felt that after this, he could rest easy because he did his part. There was literally nothing more that he could physically do.  
The other donor, Jason felt was a little unlikely. It was Octavian, since he was also a universal donor. When he sat down next to Jason to get his blood taken, Jason’s nostrils flared, and he didn’t make eye contact with him. 

Three more days, and Leo woke up when he was alone (this, Jason would regret for his entire life). He woke up in the extreme hours of the morning. The Apollo kids had returned to their cabin for the first time in a while to sleep, as did Jason and Piper. He put his bare feet on the cold floor, and walked to the door of the infirmary. It creaked as it opened.  
Leo looked out into the empty camp. His cut hurt, and he pressed his fingers against his bandage. He felt like his memory was a little choppy, but he wasn’t even sure of that. He remembered crashing into the lake with Festus. The poor guy was at the end of his life. Leo shouldn’t have pushed him so hard.  
He also remembered being submerged under the murky water, kicking violently, and not knowing which way was towards the surface, or where Calypso was.  
God, he hoped that Calypso wasn’t dead.  
He went to look for her. Or someone. Just anyone he knew. He walked towards the lake, but knew that it was a lost cause. No one was going to be up this early.  
Leo waded into the cool water without even noticing, and he slapped himself. Gods, that seemed like something he would do, and here he was doing it. Maybe, he should just take all things that seemed like something that he would do, and never do them.  
He felt a little dizzy at this point, but he didn’t want to go back to the infirmary. He felt like he would get worse there, for some inexplicable reason. Maybe it was because this is where he wanted to be.  
Leo trudged over to a tall cottonwood tree that shifted in a breeze that was almost nonexistent, and slid down with his back slumped against it. The dried blood from his cut pulled on his skin, so he angled his head so he was looking slightly upright. He felt like he should have been more worried about Calypso. But, he wasn’t. She was a lot stronger than he was, and a lot smarter too.


End file.
